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"23 souls, big as well as little," arrive in North America

September 4, 1654

Early in September 1654, a group of Jews, described in the public records as "23 souls, big as well as little," arrived on the docks of the new world Dutch colony of New Amsterdam.

We know about their arrival because on September 7, presumably quite soon after their arrival, the captain of their ship the St. Catherine sued them for the cost of their freight and food en route. Of the six names of this initial group mentioned in surviving court records, two were women. Historians have speculated that there may have been more women than men in this original group.

Sources: Arnold Wiznitzer, "The Exodus from Brazil and Arrival in New Amsterdam of the Jewish Pilgrim Fathers, 1654," Publication of the American Jewish Historical Society, 44:1 (September, 1954): 80-97.